Survival: Endless/Strategies
This is a strategy page about Survival: Endless. Feel free to add your strategies, but see the rules page first. Beginner's Guide: Survival Endless builds. Setting up any sustainable endgame builds usually require a lot of sun to set up. Therefore, anyone new to Survival: Endless should at least read this section before venturing off to other builds. Setting up the builds Since most endgame builds need a lot of sun. The player should jump start the sun economy by having a lot of Sunflower while fending off the zombies. The build used for setting up is a traditional 8 Cob Cannons build. Imitater or 10th seed slot is optional in setting up this build. By the time the second flag is up, the pool should have at least 4 Gloom-shrooms with Pumpkins as well as the land mostly filled with Sunflowers. The choice of seed packets for third flag and onward is based on the zombies and setup. So be sure to understand what respective seed packets should be taken to handle the zombies while developing further into the desired endgame build. Example of adapting to specific zombies at 3rd and 4th flags is shown in the gallery: 3C8 starter zomboni.png|Dealing with Zombonis 3C8 starter pogo part 1.png|Squash can be used if a Pogo Zombie has breached through the Melon-pults or their Winter variant 3C8 starter football part 1.png|Stalling Football Zombies with Wall-nuts 3C8 starter football part 2.png|Stalling Football Zombies with Pumpkins 3C8 starter digger part 2.png|Dealing Digger Zombies with Gloom-shrooms 3C8 starter digger part 1.png|A single Gloom-shroom is capable of eliminating them before they can even touch the Sunflowers at the first and sixth row 3C8 starter bungee.png|Bungee Zombies can be stopped with Umbrella Leaves and Cob Cannons 3C8 starter catapult.png|Dealing with Catapult Zombies with Umbrella Leaves and Cob Cannons. This can also rebound the Bungee Zombies. Gallery of a playthrough building the traditional 8 Cob Cannon setup after flag 2: 3C8 starter jack.png|Unfortunate case of Jack-in-the-Box exploding very soon 3C8 2.png 3C8 3.png|Gloom-shrooms are prepared again 3C8 4.png|Another unfortunate Jack-in-the-Box explosion 3C8 5-1.png|The completed endgame build Traditional 8 Cob Cannon by 3C妹妹. Now obviously the main damage dealer for this build are the 8 Cob Cannons. For the timing of this build, send the Cob Cannons shown below as soon as the next horde of normal zombies or Gargantuars become visible on the screen. You can still survive without the Gloom-shrooms at the 8th and 9th column provided the timing of Cob Cannons is done right. Be sure to bring the right plants to maintain the endgame build such as: * Lily Pad, Fume-shroom, Gloom-shroom and Coffee Bean ** For Jack-in-the-Box Zombies encounter. ** They can explode and take down the Gloom-shrooms in the pool. ** When rebuilding the Gloom-shrooms, suppress the zombie hordes using instants. * Blover ** For blowing off Balloon Zombies. * Pumpkins ** For maintenance, priority for repairing should go to **# Dolphin Rider Zombies **# Imps **# Digger Zombies * Spikeweed and Spikerock ** For maintenance as Zombonis, Gargantuars and their Giga-counterpart. * Squash and Cherry Bomb ** In case if there is not enough firepower to suppress the advancement of zombie hordes. * Imitater (optional) ** A second Pumpkin is very useful for newcomers as they are getting in the ropes for the timing of 8 Cob Cannons. * Ice-shroom and Coffee Bean (optional) ** 3.5 seconds is a lot of time to recharge the next pair of Cob Cannon as well as getting some breathing space. * Jalapeno (optional) ** Despite Squash's smaller effective range, Squash is still a better option as it recharges twice as fast. Example of a video playthrough of the traditional 8 Cob Cannon build in late game. Here is a low maintenance version of the setup. The need for maintenance due to Digger Zombies is reduced significantly and Tall-nut is maintained for Dolphin Rider Zombies. Therefore the build is less stressful on repairing defenses while requires a slightly more precise timing for the 8 Cob Cannons. 4 Cob Cannon Builds Traditional 4 Cob Cannon builds are versatile and slow-paced. The build can handle Zombonis and Gargantuars finely, although not Giga-gargantuars and Balloon Zombies. You can just let the game run by itself and moderate the build sparingly. Even if the Gloom-shrooms are destroyed by Jack-in-the-Box Zombies, 4 Cob Cannons and any instants (Squash, Cherry Bomb and Ice-shroom) is still good enough to sustain the weakened row 2 or 5. Giving as much as 10+ flags for repairing as well. Traditional Cobless build Traditional Cobless (no Cob Cannon) build functions similarly to the 4 Cob Cannon build except relying heavily on instants. This can be stressful since you spend more focus on instants while maintaining the Pumpkins. Jack-in-the-Box Zombie is a real threat here. Consecutive explosions can happen and take out 3 Gloom-shrooms on the pool and severely weaken the rows 2 or 5. No amount of instants can save you from this kind of abrupt situation. Therefore, it will be a miracle that the Traditional Cobless build can survive for 1000 flags. Hunter's 2 Cob Hit'n Wonder (By YetanothertheGreatCreepypasta) This build can go guaranteed to the late twenty's. It was built to cater to the Ipad/DS/IOS nine seed packet limit, but ten seed packets will be handy. Flag 1-2 *Choose Sunflower, Twin Sunflower, Potato Mine, Imitater Potato Mine/Squash, Squash, Tangle Kelp, Melon-pult, Lily Pad, and Cattail. *First, plant a Sunflower on row two, column two. Then place five more, four of them in the pool in the back, and upgrade them to Twins. You should have them all upgraded by the wave's end. Use Potato Mines/Squash to take down early zombies. *When you get enough sun (250 total), plant a Cattail on the third column of any water row. This Cattail will take down many zombies, even lone Bucketheads. Plant another when it recharges and you get 300 sun, although you could knock 25 off by planting a Lily Pad after planting the first. These will take all Balloon Zombies off screen. *Afterwards, plant Melon-pults on all land rows to take out the hordes. You'll only need one per row, and try to put them in a 3x3 area. Flag 3-4 *Choose Melon-pult, Pumpkin, Winter Melon, Lily Pad, Squash, Umbrella Leaf (If there are Catapult Zombies or Bungee Zombies), Spikeweed (if there are Zombonis or Digger Zombies), Spikerock (If said zombies appear, or if there are Gargantuars), Imitater Pumpkin and/or instant kills. *To begin, plant a Winter Melon on any Melon-pult. Those rows nearby/with it will be slowed down. Repeat on all land rows. *Plant Melon-pults on the water rows. Plant them on the sixth column. Put Pumpkins on them to protect them from attack. Upgrade them to Winter Melons when possible. *If Spikerock/Spikeweed are chosen, plant them on the back. One Spikerock can defeat INFINITE Diggers. If chosen, plant Umbrella Leaf on the second and fifth row. These will protect the Melon-pults/Winter Melons, Sunflowers, Cattails and back Spikerocks from attack. Plant Spikeweeds on the sixth column to kill Zombonis instantly/stall Gargantuars. Upgrade any to Spikerocks once you can. Flag 5-8 (This step will take a while) *Choose Lily Pad, Coffee Bean, Fume-shroom, Gloom-shroom, Spikeweed, Spikerock, Pumpkin, Imitater Pumpkin, and Cherry Bomb. *Plant Gloom-shrooms on the last three columns of the water rows. Put Pumpkins on them to protect them. *Plant two more Gloom-shrooms on rows one and six, on column three. These will kill tossed Imps. *Finish digger Spikerocks. *Plant Fume-shroom pairs on rows one and six. Flag 9-10 *Choose the Gloom-shroom necessaries, Lily Pad, Pumpkin, Imitater Pumkin, Kernel-pult, Cob Cannon and Cherry Bomb. *Plant two Cob Cannons in the remaining pool space. Use them to soften up Gargs or take down more annoying foes. Rest of Game *Choose the Gloom-shroom necessaries, Lily Pad, Pumpkin, Imitater Pumpkin, Spikeweed, Spikerock, and Cherry Bomb/Ice-shroom. *Keep Gloomy things because those bloody Jacks will not stop appearing. These might blow up your Gloomies/Spikerock, ruining your pool rows/Zomboni defense. The worst thing that could happen is they take out any Winter Melons. *Cherry Bombs/Ice-shrooms are handy to give you time to breathe or take out Giga-gargantuars. If you do it right, you might see yourself in the K's. Good luck! Other Traditional Cob Cannon builds 2 Cob Cannon build * Functions similarly to 4 Cob Cannon. You can still survive indefinitely with proper management of instants. 6 Cob Cannon build * The timing for this is using a single Cob Cannon shot that should hits majority of the zombies in the spot for every time the zombie icon at the bottom moves. 10 Cob Cannon build * Having two Cob Cannons on the pool where ambush zombies can appear. * Timing is slightly faster than 8 Cob Cannon builds. * Either use the Cob Cannons to blast the ambush zombies in the pool or Ice-shroom to freeze the surface of the water. The Structure of Traditional Builds and Common Variants Pool Glooms and Jack-in-the-Box explosion Pool Glooms are important in smoothing the incoming waves of zombies in 4 or more Cob Cannons while being the main damage output for 4 or less Cob Cannon builds. 3 of them are able to handle Zombonis and slowed down Gargantuars without squishing the lone Pumpkin in the 2nd row. However, it cannot handle Giga-gargantuars even when they were slowed during their entrance. So players are advised to use instants or cheap stalling plants like Puff-shrooms or Sun-shrooms to deal with them. Another issue is that the Winter Melon has limited range, therefore it is possible for Football Zombies and Gargantuars to damage plants in column 6. Last but not least, Jack-in-the-Box Zombies are notorious at taking the Gloom-shrooms due to their speed. They explode at a known probability. (I have not read through the details properly so no numbers yet) There are two possible initial explosions that can occur to the build. This is when the Jack-in-the-Box Zombie instantly explode right as he enters the lawn. He can take down one Gloom-shroom along with the Pumpkins. Apparently Pumpkins are considered as separate plants when it comes to Jack-in-the-Box while grouped into one when squished by vehicles or Gargantuar. This is when the Jack-in-the-Box Zombie enters the lawn without being slowed down and stayed for too long. Here he takes down two Gloom-shrooms, severely weakening the defense for the affected lane. Instants are heavily used to maintain the incoming zombies. If another Jack-in-the-Box explodes again in the affected lane, it will be very difficult to fight off the hordes as well as putting a dent on the sun resources. Land of Fumes This structure of Fume-shrooms and Gloom-shrooms are able to take down Zombonis and any slowed down zombies before touching them except for Football Zombies and Giga-gargantuars. Fire Peas This Gatling Peas and Torchwood combo disintegrates almost every zombie in its lane with its massive damage output and small splash range. With at least three Gatling Peas, you can ensure the constant stream of damage dealt to the horde of zombies. One interesting point is while burning peas unfreeze the first zombie in the front, their splash damage do not unfreeze the affected zombies. Moreover, Catapult Zombies will never get unfrozen by the burning peas by direct damage. So Ice-shrooms are very handy when it comes to slowing down the horde at the back. However, the massive damage done is never good enough to hold of groups of Gargantuars, screen doors and ice resurfacers. Gargantuars just take too long to collapse while the metallic duo negates the splash effect. However, there are ways to work around these pests. Here we have a common structure for Fire Peas structure. By using Gloom-shrooms to filter out any Screen Door Zombies too near to the defense and Spikerocks to pop off Zombonis and stall Gargantuars. This is a very common and solid structure for dealing with these zombies. However, it's weakness here is doing the massive splash damage at the very last moment. So instants should be used to support the lane well. Here is another variant of the build where a Fume-shroom is used to deal with Screen Door Zombies. Screen Door Zombies without slowdown will collapse just as they are about to reach the Fume-shroom. So this is another good variant of Firepeas in Endless builds. Imps Imps are launched onto the back of the defense at column 2, 3 and 4 as they are occupied by the Pumpkins. The regular Pumpkins represents where the Imps would normally land in the traditional endgame builds while the Imitater Pumpkins represents where they can also land if the Gargantuars thrown them at the column 9. Two Gloom-shrooms are recommended to deal with these critters. Imps come in abundance so the Pumpkins' maintenance should be prioritized first. Digger Zombie Digger Zombies will tunnel to the back of the lawn, snaps out from a couple seconds of dizziness and begin eating from the opposite direction. Once again, two Gloom-shrooms are recommended at dealing with them as they take at 2 to 4 bites off the Pumpkins. Alternatively you can use three Gloom-shrooms to handle the Digger Zombies. The bites the Digger Zombies can make is reduced down to 0 to 2 with this Gloom-shrooms position. Cutting down the need of maintenance to a point you can repair those Pumpkins every 2 flags/5 minutes. This is an odd structure to deal with Digger Zombies as it leaves a single tile of empty space. They can snap out of dizziness and begin waddling towards the plants but they will be dead before they can even touch the plants even if you plant the Pumpkins. However I would not recommend this structure as having a single Gloom-shroom to deal with the nasty Imps is a bad idea. Modern Guide for Skilled Players Pumpkin hitbox Pumpkins have a larger hitbox, meaning Zombonis and Gargantuars may collide with them earlier than had there not been a pumpkin. If these zombies are about to destroy any plant with Pumpkin on, remove the pumpkin so that the plant will not be flattened at all. Always be mindful of Football Zombies when doing so, as the plant is now unguarded. Jack-in-the-Box Zombies' explosions can take out the Pumpkin only, leaving the plant in it behind because of the slightly larger hitbox. Tempo The rate of zombie waves arriving is affected by the amount of damage done to the current wave '''of zombies, not previous ones. Because of that, the tempo can be either slowed down using Ice-shrooms or sped up with massive damaging instants. Tempo should be maintained steadily or there will be too many zombies to deal with or the seed packets are still recharging. Laddering By now you have probably noticed maintaining Pumpkins is very tedious, despite the Imps that cause the damge being 6 normal pea shots weak. Attempting to ladder the Pumpkins is a challenging task for newcomers, so one must be careful while doing this. The terrible encounters for newcomers to ladder the Pumpkins for the two flags are Jack-in-the-Box Zombies, Giga-gargantuars and Dancing Zombies. Zombonis can be halted with Spikeweed. Ladders are removed when explosives are in range, pumpkin gets repaired, Imitaters, the plant in it is dug out or upgraded. Videos by hitoridakeno. Jack Suppression Jack-in-the-Box Zombies have always been a notorious threat in Survival: Endless, most notably for endgame builds using 4 or less Cob Cannons. The concept of Jack suppression is to eliminate Jack-in-the-Box Zombies before they can pose a threat to the endgame build. Initially, everyone has the idea of suppressing Jack-in-the-Box by rotating Instants in rows 2 and 5 to minimize the possibility to Jack-in-the-Box destruction while providing consistent damage for the other rows. Here is the first cobless build to integrate the structure of Jack suppression. Gloom-shroom seed packet is not brought along when there is no Gloom-shroom taken down. The structure with the aid of Ice-shrooms eliminates Jack explosions that can occur column 8 and before, which accounts for 95% of the possible explosions. The remaining 5% will only take away the very first Gloom-shroom on the pool. First Jack Suppression build.jpg| Endgame build by 平渊(2010) Jack Suppression 1.png|This is the structure for suppressing Jack-in-the-Box Zombies Jack Suppression 2.png|The original structure for rows 2 and 5 Jack Suppression 3.png|The core structure of Jack suppression as well as backup DPS. With proper instant timing, this structure can prevent any Jack explosions from happening at column 8. Jack Suppression 4.png|Structure for suppressing Jack-in-the-Box Zombies at rows 1 and 6 Jack Suppression 5.png|The main DPS for rows 1 and 6 And the idea of suppressing Jack-in-the-Box further developed that year. Since 5% of the Jack-in-the-Box Zombies will explode at either column 8 or 9. Players have decided to move their builds two tiles back to negate the Jack-in-the-Box Zombies explosions. So the remaining 95% can be suppressed with the proper cycle of instants. However, a very small amount Jack explosions (We're talking about less than 1% here) can still occur due to premature freezing by the Winter Melons. This build is one of the refined builds of Jack suppression. There are two different tempo with each having unique method of Jack suppression. Harmless Harmless is a term coined for builds that can be untouchable by zombies (including Jack-in-the-Box) through proper management. There are easily harmless 4+ Cob Cannon builds at the year 2009. However, combining cobless builds and Jack-in-the-Box suppression poses a problem. It is impossible to have a build with such traits without making another structure vulnerable. This is one of the first attempt on harmless and cobless in the western community. The build is by draco89123. However, there is not a single attempt to suppress Jack-in-the-Box Zombies. So this is actually pseudo/semi-harmless build. This design is based around the idea of 100% Jack suppression. Ice-shroom is required to time on the Bungee Zombies. But since that's the case, Ambush Zombies from the pool can take a bite at the Gloom-shroom at the instant they spawned. However, with a Buckethead Zombie emerging in front of the front most Gloom-shrooms on the pool, this setup is not perfectly harmless. Special Thanks George Fan: For making this game very appealing especially the game mechanics. I may have doubts in giving my gratitude for making Jack-in-the-Box infuriating to play against though. Draco89123: Being the first Western player to invent one of the first Cobless build and attempted to communicate with Baidu. Also introduced me to Cobless and mechanics of Plants vs Zombies. 植物大战僵尸吧: For being extremely disciplined and dedicated in making huge advancements to the structure of Survival Endless builds. Still the biggest Plants vs Zombies community out there! hitoridakeno: Being one of the first person outside of 植物大战僵尸吧 to develop into post-2009 strategies and attempted to introduce the more advanced Plants vs Zombies builds especially from the community.' Category:Survival (Endless) Category:Strategies